This is the pilot episode of Trần Văn Kirk’s documentary series, Intersections, which will cover the lives of the “Children of the Dust” – the English translation of a derogatory Vietnamese term (“bụi đời”) for the Amerasian children fathered by American military servicemembers and civilian contractors during the Vietnam War. Because it is a pilot episode, “Meet the Đà Nẵng Gang” spends much of its opening third establishing the historical and sociopolitical context behind the Vietnam War while introducing the audience to Cảnh (who also narrates this episode), Dan, Rachel, and Kirk (appearing in his own work). All four of them were raised in the Sacred Heart Orphanage in Đà Nẵng.

They did not know each other when they lived there, and each one was adopted by different American families near the Vietnam War’s conclusion. Growing up in the U.S. without much exposure of their Vietnamese heritage, they faced prejudice from others and difficulties fitting into their new families.

The fates and lives of Amerasian children (a term that can also encompass those fathered by an Asian woman and an American military/contractor father during World War II, the Korean War, and peacetime) have been rarely depicted in American, let alone Vietnamese, media. As of the writing of this synopsis in late July 2023, the subsequent episodes of Intersections are planned to cover one individual’s life in more intricate detail, but Trần Văn Kirk has not ruled out the possibility of making this one longer documentary feature.